Well, it is that time a year again and summer vacation is over and you are headed back to the grind. Here are a few suggestions to get the kids using technology the first week of school.
1. Wordle
"Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends." from their website.
Have them select words that describe their summer vacation, expectations for the new year, favorite topic or rules for the classroom.
2. Google Earth for Educators
"Google Earth is a free, downloadable application that combines satellite imagery, maps, 3D terrain and 3D buildings to create a highly realistic virtual globe. Teachers and students can create their own virtual tours and share them with others. They can explore content developed by organizations such as NASA, Discovery Education, Jane Goodall and others. In addition, Google Earth now allows students and teachers to turn their gaze upward to explore the night sky in staggering detail." from their website
You can have the kids create their summer trip and show where they have been this summer by creating annotated place markers indicating the location.
3. Blog
Have the students start their blog the first week of school so they can journal the year, post messages, photos, and videos from events in their lives, share schoolwork with their peers, parents, and others.
4. Create a scavenger hunt.
Create a list of items or locations in the school and have the kids use the digital cameras to take photos of the items on the list. They can then create a video introducing their school to others. (make sure the rest of the school knows they might be interrupted....music, art, library, etc...)
5. Create a podcast
Have students record something about themselves, the school, their friends, or something of interest to them.
You can also play a simple game of Simon Says for the younger students. Find out what they know about the computer....monitor, mouse, keyboards, USB port, open an application, etc...
Hope these ideas help. Let me know how they worked out and if you have any ideas to add to mine. Thanks for sharing!!
15 comments:
These are great ideas. It is amazing how far technology has come since we were in school. The blog idea is one I may start with my 12 year old.
How about a digital picture/powerpoint on how I spent my summer vacation?
Michael L.
Great ideas Nancy. I especially like the scavenger hunt with the digital cameras. I think I'll suggest this to the third grade teachers. What a fun way to learn the school!
Sandy
These are great suggestions! For a teacher in a classroom, but also for parents at home, trying to extend the learning environment past the classroom. Neat!
Kate Browning
I love using Google Earth for my Solar System unit. There is an option in the menus where you can go into outer space and look at the universe, not just the Earth (:
Crystal Card
This couldn't come at a better time! I love getting new ideas, or at the very least, "twists" on old ideas for interesting activities to start the school year. I've never even posted or written on a blog before, but you have inspired me to give it a try. It's a great way to motivate ESL students to write, since it'll be in small chunks.
I think having the new students on campus creating a video of their new school with their cameras instead of simply posting photos on the bulletin board will be much more fun for them. If you have any suggestions for tackling this project, pass them on, please!
I have just fnished the first part of my Masters and I met a teacher who is going to try and use podcasting and blogging to get connections between older ESL students in her school and her primary students.
Also use the blog as a means of feedback to parents on her students work.
I think these are fantastic options for teachers to use, its the language of today's youth, we need to get on board.
Wendy
What a wonderful way to use technology! The Google Earth project showing where students spent summer vacation is amazing. The scavenger hunt also sounds exciting. Bravo!
I really like the idea about using Google Earth! I think I will use the "Simon Says" idea on our first trip to the computer lab! It's a good way to find out what my first graders know. Thanks Nancy!
Jody L.
I think a blog is a great way to start Mike. Mike and I have kept one of our travels for the last 4 years and find we refer people to it if they are headed some place we have been, to reminisce, and educate others about the world.
Wendy I think the blog to inform parents is a great way to increase communication to parents while eliminating phone calls, emails, and face to face meetings. I believe the others are important for certain discussions but not the day to day events of the classroom/field.
Beth, students love having their stories, opinions, and questions commented and answered via a blog. Got to love an audience! You as a teacher can see the growth over time as you read their blog from Aug versus May. Parents can also comment on their child’s work in their native language or better yet practice their English too.
I like the idea of a class Blog being used as a journal. It would work at any grade level, getting kids to comment on their own work.
The scavenger hunt could be a great learning tool also. Just pass the digital camera around and see what comes back.
David
What an awesome site with so many great ideas to implement in the classroom or also just keep up to date on what is new an available. I've been finding kids like the idea of blogging about their work as a way to journal and track their progress. Now I have to start looking at twitter... Hmmm
Keep up the excellent informative site. I'll suggest it to my friends to check it out as well.
-Cathy B :-)
I LOVE the wordle sight. Great way for the little ones to group common words or extend their vocabulary by describing things. Have book marked this site and plan to use it with my first graders. Thanks for all the great tools you provide. Will spread the word to my team.
Laura
What about using a digital camera to create a book of numbers. The kids could work in small groups and take photos around campus to make a book of numbers from 1 - 10. Just a thought :)
Laura
I like the idea of the scavenger hunt. I wonder if we can do something similar for second grade when they are doing their social studies unit on jobs around the school where they put faces and places and comment on them.
I also like Laura's ideas about the number book. I have not read the Google Earth idea but I have an interest in it since last year and would love to figure out any project that we can do with the lower grade levels.
WOW! What are these great ideas in seconds Nancy and Mike!
Basma
Oh, it feels like we're working together again! Thanks for all your technical wisdom. Like Laura, I'll be sharing this with my team as a site full of good resources. Give me a week to get back into school and then I'm all over these activities.
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